Payment card systems are in widespread use. A prominent payment card system is operated by the assignee hereof, MasterCard International Incorporated, and by its member financial institutions. To initiate the transaction, a customer may visit a retail store operated by a merchant, selects goods that he/she wishes to purchase, and presents his/her payment card to a merchant's Point Of Sale (“POS”) terminal. The POS terminal reads the customer's payment card account number from the payment card, and then sends an authorization request to an acquirer platform associated with a financial institution with which the merchant has a relationship. The authorization request typically includes the payment card account number, the amount of the transaction and other information, such as merchant identification and location. The authorization request message may be routed via a payment system authorization platform (which may be, for example, the well-known Banknet™ system operated by MasterCard International Incorporated) to an issuer platform of an issuer financial institution that issued the customer's payment card.
Assuming that all is in order, the issuer platform transmits a favorable authorization response to the acquirer platform through the payment system authorization platform. The transaction at the POS is then completed and the customer leaves the store with the goods. A subsequent clearing transaction initiated by the merchant results in a transfer of the transaction amount from the customer's payment card account to an account that belongs to the merchant. The customer's payment card account may be, for example, either a debit card account or a credit card account. In the former case, the clearing transaction results in the funds being debited directly from the account. In the latter case, the clearing transaction results in a charge being posted against the account, and the charge subsequently appears on the customer's monthly credit card statement.
The foregoing description of the typical transaction may be considered to be somewhat simplified in some respects. For example, a merchant processing system (not shown) may be interposed between the POS terminal and the acquirer platform. As is familiar to those who are skilled in the art, a merchant processing system may be operated by or on behalf of the merchant to form part of the communications path between the acquirer platform and a considerable number of POS terminals operated by the merchant. It is also often the case that a third party transaction processing service, such as a Payment Services Provider (“PSP”), may operate to handle payment card transactions on behalf of the acquirer and on behalf of a large number of other like financial institutions.
A cardholder who travels from country to country may face a foreign currency exchange rate dilemma when making a purchase. For example, he or she may have multiple payment cards, each associated at a different currency (e.g., U.S. dollars, European euros, British pounds, etc.). Moreover, each different currency will trade at a different exchange rate that will change on a day-to-day basis. It can be confusing and inconvenient for the cardholder to intelligently and efficiently choose between these various options.
The present inventors have recognized that there is a need for methods and/or systems to provide a multi-currency transaction routing platform to facilitate the processing of payment card transactions.